Love's a funny thing
by RandomRachel
Summary: One of the funny things about love is that you never see it coming. The other funny thing about love is that it's almost impossible to get rid of. Ste wants a new start, a life for his family. Brendan wants Ste back but it was never going to be easy, especially when the whole world seems to be against them. With broken trust and scars aplenty, is love really enough?


Hiya! New story, yeah! Hope you like it! I know it's short but it's really just an opening really.

This is the scene from the E4 episode on the 6th of June (the one after the fish/steak incident and hotel fiasco). However, it ends differently and the rest of the story will not follow the same plot as the show.

***Major Spoiler Warning***

This story is dedicated to SinceSlicedBread! You have influenced this whole story and your support is really appreciated, not only on this story but my others. You are amazing and I really love your help. Thank youuuuuuu! XD xx

Ste Hay

"Stephen, hey."

I sighed in frustration, slumping against the counter, head on hands, "Right. I 'ave said all I've got to say, alright?"

"Please, just hear me out. Please." He was staring at me intently so I did. I'm not sure why I decided to listen though there wasn't much I could do anyway. He did own the bloody buisness thanks to a certain American after all.

"Okay, er." He sighed, eyes on the floor. When he finally looked at me, he looked apologetic but strangely...triumphant? It was like he already knows he's going to win but plays the game anyway. I'd seen that look before. It was on his face everytime he said I'd get back with him and everytime I did. But not this time. "You were right. The whole thing was planned, from start to finish."

I nodded because I already knew. Of course it was planned. When does Brendan ever not have a plan, a way to stay ahead, to stay on top?

"Only this isn't how I...this isn't how I wanted it t' turn out." He told me, not meeting my eyes. He looked nervous. Of course this wasn't how he wanted it to turn out. He wanted me to sleep with him in that hotel, then go home with him back in control of me with an £80,000 debt, courtesy of Doug, hanging above my head as well.

"Well, not think it's a bit too late?" I asked him because it was. It was months too late. We couldn't fix things, not now.

He laughed at that, more of a huff than a laugh really and I had a feeling that this wasn't how he wanted this conversation to go either. Not with me being stubborn and refusing to co-operate. So, of course, he steered the conversation towards something else.

"Last night, when I was in the hotel room." He told me and I frowned at that. He'd stayed? I thought, after I left, he'd leave too. "Alone." Why did he need to point that out? I knew he was alone, I left him there. But, somehow, I just couldn't picture Brendan wallowing in self-pity in a hotel room by himself. His words just didn't ring true.

"All night, thinking. All these...all these games. All these...lies, you know? I'm done wi' it. I'm exhausted, you know?" He said.

"Am I supposed to be believing all this?" I asked because I didn't. I couldn't. Did he expect me to believe that he'd suddenly changed his whole attitude, his whole personality, just because I left him at a hotel?

"The loan for the deli - that was all for you." He told me, changing the direction of the conversation again. "It was all to get you back into my life." At that, I felt my resolve waver, just a bit. Felt the doubts creeping in: what if he meant it? But I told myself that we'd had a very similar talk before and we both know how that had ended. I wasn't going there, not again.

"You want me to be a puppet, Brendan." I told him, frustration clear in my voice.

"Yeah, I... yeah." He looked up at me and smiled, not a real one just a nervous flash of one and I felt some more of my wall being chipped off. "Yeah, the control, the power - that's...that's all I've ever known. But that's the old me." More of my walls crumbled because that's what I used to believe, what I used to cling to - the belief that Brendan Brady could change. And not only that, but that he could change for _me_. It was all I ever wanted, once upon a time.

"I'm not asking for an answer now. I'm not. I just want you to know that I'm startin' over. A new me and...I'd really, really like you to be with me, Stephen." I was speechless now because I couldn't quite bring myself to believe him but there was a part of me that cheered at his words. He wanted to be with me. But there was something nagging at the back of my mind. This was different to _that _time, the time he said _'I love you'_. Then, he'd been desperate, pleading, words rushed with hope and fear showing in his face. But now, it seemed almost... planned: like every word was carefully used to affect me most.

He looked uncertain now, like he wasn't sure what to do. I had to tell myself how good of a preformer he was, how he could fool people easily. "Okay." he said and, with one last glance at me, he left and I could breathe again.

Either he was telling the truth or that was a great performance. I couldn't help but think it was lies though. Yet, I couldn't let it go either. The idea of being with him infected my thoughts and I eventually gave in, admitted it even if it was just to myself. I was still in love with him. It was with that thought that I knew that I had to do something, something important. One of the main things that sounded false in his speech was about staying in the hotel alone. I couldn't imagine Brendan pining over me like some girl. He wasn't remotely sensitive or emotional. I thought he would've gone home and planned on his next move or went out to get absoloutely drunk on Irish whiskey like usual.

I needed to know the truth. Maybe I was paranoid. Maybe I was completely wrong. But I wasn't jumping in blind, not again.

Rachey Ayy xx


End file.
